“Metal Rules the Globe will surely join the ranks of Robert Walser’s Running with the Devil and Deena Weinstein’s Heavy Metal as one of the classics of heavy metal scholarship. A fascinating and valuable read!”

“Frequently misunderstood and maligned in its countries of origin, heavy metal music has in the last four decades become a potent source of meaning and identity for young and no-longer-so-young people across the planet. These fans have stayed loyal to the music despite societal disapproval, occasional moral panics, censorship, and even government harassment and violence. Metal Rules the Globe is the first academic book to explore the broad swath of metal’s worldwide growth and examine why this often devalued, censored, and ridiculed music genre has attracted so many devoted fans in far-flung locales” (from the introduction).

“The authors stoke the flames of heavy metal high and wide as the united forces of fans, bands and mediators mount local-to-global resistance against the contradictory claims on identity, economy, history and society. Valiant against anomie, disempowerment and meaninglessness, we see an Alloy International Army standing proud and strong. A treasure chest of brutal truth for scholars, planners, metal maniacs and globalization geeks from sea to toxic sea.” —Donna Gaines, author of Teenage Wasteland and A Misfit’s Manifesto

“The contributors to Metal Rules the Globe venture far and wide, providing an engaging overview of heavy metal music across the world. This collection will find an international audience and become the standard reference on the global heavy metal scene.”
— Will Straw, co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to Pop and Rock